Final Discussion Post

Hi everyone,

This is the final discussion post of the semester. Some suggestions for topics to discuss: What were your perspectives on the web portfolios? What did you observe about the portfolios you saw from each other this week, and did that change the way you thought about working on your own?

Or, reflect on anything else that you'd like to mention. It's been a great semester!

* Please respond by Friday, May 7, 2010 so that I have enough time to complete final grades! Postings any time after Friday, May 7 will not be counted. Thanks!

Discussion for Week 15

If you have already given your second persuasive presentation, use this time to reflect on the differences between your first and second presentations. Was this one easier? Harder? What choices did you make in terms of topic, references, and visuals? If you haven't yet given your final presentation, wait until you've given yours to reflect-- or, use this post to talk about what you've noticed in other presentations!

Let's end strong this week! Good luck to everyone!

Discussion for Week 14

As we approach the end of the semester, use this space to reflect on anything we haven't openly discussed on the blog, or perhaps for any questions you may have. Other good things to note might be our final impromptu practice day last week, as well as the additional lab time we had. I'm very much looking forward to the final presentations and the portfolios! The ideas everyone has come up with have been great, and it's been such a pleasure to see everyone taking the assignments seriously and developing such unique topics.

Yesterday's class was a lot of fun with the impromptu speeches. Were some of them persuasive though? There could have been some improvements, but I know it was still an impromptu speech. Todd S. did a pretty good job on previewing his five points and then closing with wrapping them all up at the end. Fundamentals my dear Watson... Other than that I really enjoyed watching some of those speeches. Keep up the good work!

Discussion for Week 13

Hi everyone,

This week, continuing with the trend of working on your web portfolios, share any thoughts you have, and possibly progress of your web sites. Were the lab days useful? What sorts of things are you most focused on with your sites? Is there anything I can do to help?

Web site progress

Should we share some progress shots of our sites so far? Thoughts? Note-- if so, might want to make a new post so that commenting will be easier for each.

I'll start. I think it will look better once I add some actual content and some images (planning to do that with the sidebar).

Web Host/Registration services

Here are some web hosting options in case you're interested, as well as registration services.

rydia.net- I have been using this service for several years- can't remember how many at this point. They offer great, affordable packages and good customer service. Although they cater to 'artists' (bracketed because that could encompass a variety of things), still worth checking out.

register.com- If you want to register a domain.

godaddy.com- Web hosting and registration services.

CSSEdit

This is a good tool to learn CSS with. It's pretty user-friendly as well.

http://macrabbit.com/cssedit/

World's Worst Website

I found this through Google during the lab session, and I thought people designing their Web portfolios might find this useful. This site is full of examples of what NOT to do when designing a Web site. It is purposely badly made, and the page actually directly informs viewers of what's wrong with each element and gives suggestions of good practices as well.

http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/

Discussion for Week 12

As we wrap up the persuasive speeches, please feel free to share any final thoughts you may have, particularly having seen most of the speeches in class. Some ideas for thought: was the requirement for using two visual aids useful? Unnecessary? What did you notice other speakers citing as sources?

Thoughts on the Q&A sessions are also welcome. These have been, all in all, incredibly well done!

Excellent Article on Video Game Piracy

I mentioned this article, which I used as a source for my persuasive speech, both in my speech and in the Q&A session, if I recall correctly. In the Q&A session, I think I said I would probably post the link to the blog. Here it is. I personally found it fascinating, and chances are that you will as well. (Additional note: it was last updated last month - March 2010.)

PC Game Piracy Examined
by Koroush Ghazi

Discussion for Week 11

Please reflect on the persuasive speeches for this week. What presentations stood out to you, and why? Were there aspects of presentations where you had the most interest? For those who haven't yet presented, what are you doing to prepare for this presentation?

One thing I would like to note is that we've had some very active Q&A sessions. Several of our speakers were challenged, but everyone was up to the task and handled themselves well. I think we're off to a great start.

Useful Articles

Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign

Better Writing through Design

Persuasion Activity

Great job, everyone, on our persuasion activity yesterday. Across the board, everyone did such a good job of presenting well-balanced points...and everyone got to speak for nearly equal amounts of time. We have such a productive and active class.

Looking forward to the presentations this week!

Discussion for Week 10: Extra/Free Post

Hi everyone,

This week's discussion is a bonus. Feel free to use this space as a general place for reflection about any discussions we've had in class so far or any relevant issues. Continuing our thoughts about persuasion is another idea you may want to continue developing. Sharing relevant links, resources, or interesting articles might be nice as well.

Brett Favre Persuasive Speech

For my speech i would like to gather some initial information from the class about your feelings on Brett Favre. I will not use your name nor take what you say to offense in anyway. I am just looking for a sentence or two that i can kind of base my speech around. Remember i am giving my speech that Brett Favre is not a traitor to the Green Bay Packers. My speech has nothing to do with his choice in continuing to play football, or any other career choices he has made. Just strictly towards the Green Bay Packers. If you guys could respond by wednesday that would be great. If you don't feel comfortable commenting on the blog you can write it on paper and leave it at the the table in the front of the class if you want.

Thanks,

Allie

Discussion for Week 9

Let's talk about persuasion this week. Why do we have to rethink our outline structures for persuasion? What choices did you make for your speech topic in persuasion that you did not make for your informative speeches? Are there audience factors that have shaped your choices in any way?

Several of you mentioned wanting to use the blog to gather opinions and responses from the rest of the class for your persuasive topics, so please feel free to use that as your discussion post for the week.

Persuasive Speech Topic

Hey guys,

Just to feel this topic out, how do you all feel about Indiana's Sunday Prohibition Law?? I'm on the side of thinking it is a very old and out-dated law that needs at least to be amended... to what though I'm not certain. I know that there was a proposal to change it so that microbreweries and I believe wine produced iun Indiana would be available for purchase on Sundays. I never heard what the outcome was, but I am very interested in this topic. Let me know what you think!!

Thanks,

Joe Harrison

Even More Web Design Sites

There's a myriad of sites about web design, and like everything, it takes time to find out which sites consistently provide quality material and which ones don't. Since I've done a bit of looking around myself, I'm going to join the information sharing cause and point you to a few of the gems I've found. After all, n + 1 heads are better than n!

_______________________________________________________

A List Apart

http://www.alistapart.com/

Target Skill Level: Advanced

A List Apart is a monthly blog with some quality articles from industry professionals. It covers a wide range of topics, from interface design to client relations, CSS, jQuery, and psychology, among others. One of the current articles actually discusses public speaking and technology, so I'd recommend that article for anyone in the class.

_______________________________________________________

Nettuts+

http://net.tutsplus.com/

Target Skill Level: Medium - Advanced

Nettuts+ is a user-supported tutorial blog that is the Web Design portion of the larger Tuts+ Network. Since the tutorials there are user-submitted, they range in quality and difficulty. The average tutorial explains a certain concept pretty well, but that concept is generally dealing with a non-HTML language or an advanced HTML concept. However, there recently was a roundup of great tutorials for breaking into web design, and I have the link: http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/web-roundups/10-hand-picked-tutorials-for-beginning-web-designers/

_______________________________________________________

Abduzeedo

http://abduzeedo.com/

Target Skill Level: All

Abduzeedo is a design blog that covers multiple fields. The main area that they deliver on is inspiration, and that can go a long way. From their daily selection, Daily Inspiration, to their Friday Fresh Free Fonts, Sites of the Week, and Best of the Week, Abduzeedo is chock-full of inspiration and cool work from all areas of the design sphere.

_______________________________________________________

These are some of my favorite sites to frequent for web advice and inspiration. I hope you get as much out of them as I have!

Discussion for Week 8

This week, we spent some time thinking about web design considering foundational aspects and the basic, necessary elements to creating a web site. Through lecture and our class discussions, we discussed different available tools for building web sites, as well as the basic overview for the portfolio assignment in class.

Today, we spent some time continuing this conversation and critically discussed blogs. Let's continue these thoughts with a few possible questions for discussion. One question that we didn't spend much time on asked the following: what blogs do you follow, and why? Continuing this line of thought, what makes these blogs credible to you-- or perhaps not? Why are these ideas necessary for us to consider, considering that we are all coming from different backgrounds and moving our careers in unique ways?

Please feel free to respond in the comments or start your own post. As always, you are welcome to discuss something else entirely if you have another idea that you'd like to talk about. You don't necessarily need to respond to this post, although you can if you'd like. Looking forward to some thoughts!

Interesting Blogs

The Scientist

Real Climate

Google Blog

Reassigned Time

Aviation Blog

Web Site Structures

I would like to take a moment to say that I am very impressed with the wireframes I received from most everyone in the class. There is such a nice variety in terms of what you all want to do with your web sites. I am excited to see how our projects will all come together in the end.

A couple of folks have asked if they can change their structure once they start building their site. The answer to that is that of course you can. Granted, you'll want to keep the overall theme in line with the assignment guidelines, but if you see some sections going in another direction as you progress, that is great.

Please continue to post useful links, etc. within this blog. These have been helpful and I'm glad to see such great activity on this site.

Looking forward to tomorrow's discussion/workshop!

Web Design Tips

Here are some miscellaneous tips for building better Web sites.

(1) Validate your code. If improper syntax is used (i.e., if you make a mistake in writing out the code), your site may not work properly in one or more browsers. Using the W3C Validator makes checking the code easy. Just enter the site's address in the box (or choose a different tab in order to upload a file from your hard drive or just copy/paste text), and click "Check". If there are any errors in your HTML page file, they'll all be listed in detail, so that you can figure out where you went wrong in your code. If you've specified a form of XHTML (a stricter form of HTML) for the page, the validator will use correspondingly stricter criteria. IMPORTANT NOTE: Often the validator may list a great many errors as a result of one small mistake (such as forgetting a single closing tag). ALWAYS TRY TO FIX THE FIRST LISTED ERROR FIRST. Often just fixing the first one makes all the others go away too.

(2) Try different browsers. This may not be as necessary with editor-generated sites (e.g., sites made with Dreamweaver) as it is with hand-coded sites, but it likely deserves a mention all the same. Although Internet browsers nowadays tend to be mostly compliant with universal standards (unlike many ancient browsers which did things very differently from one another), not all browsers render pages identically. There may occasionally be noticeable differences between how, for instance, Internet Explorer and Firefox display certain pages. Therefore it is a good idea to test your pages in different browsers, in order to make sure there are no differences which actually matter in the case of your site. Common browsers currently used include Internet Explorer 7 and 8, Mozilla Firefox 3, Google Chrome, Opera, and Apple Safari.

(3) Test using different resolutions and window sizes. How much of your page is displayed on the screen at a time can be CRITICALLY important to how your page looks to your viewer. If you're not careful, your page may appear cluttered or have elements moved around into undesirable positions if it is viewed at a small screen resolution or in a smaller window. Also, a page may look slightly awkward when viewed with a particularly large or wide resolution. Screen resolution, which is the measure of how many pixels (basic visual units of color that make up the whole picture on the monitor) wide and high the screen is, usually is set at 1024 x 768 pixels or more on today's computers, although some people do still have smaller resolutions such as 800 x 600. Mobile devices, of course, also tend to have quite small resolutions. In view of all this, it is important for you to repeatedly test your pages in different window sizes or at different screen resolutions (you can often change your resolution through your computer's control panel). Make sure the page content looks OK in these different views, and if it does not, alter the page layout. Use of floating elements and CSS positioning may help a great deal in solving these types of problems.

(4) Think about download quantity/speed. Try not to put too many large files on a page. Some people who have slower Internet may become impatient if they try to view a page with an unneeded quantity of multimedia on it. This means you should try not to put too many images on a given page; that you should always try to avoid putting images with unnecessarily large filesizes on a page; and that you should avoid putting large, auto-loading file embeds (such as audio files*) in a page. Not only can they be time-consuming to download, but they may also consume valuable bandwidth.
*NOTE: It is not a good idea in general, for most purposes at least, to auto-play audio on a page. It may be jarring to viewers who do not expect it, it often takes up a lot of space and bandwidth, it may slow things down, and it usually does not contribute anything essential to the page's content.

(5) Avoid all these things:
(a) Clashing or mismatched color schemes. These can hurt the eyes and look like garbage.
(b) Overcrowding of material on a page. Make the separate elements easy to distinguish and understand through judicious use of "white space" (empty space on the page).
(c) Using too much "white space". Too many blank areas can make the page look unbalanced and poorly constructed.
(d) Poor page balance. Too many items on side of the page relative to the other, for example, will be distracting and look annoying.
(e) Poor alignment. Make text, images, and other elements line up when they look like they should. If elements close to each other fail to logically line up, an impression of sloppiness will be created. Using HTML tables as frameworks for page layout can be extremely helpful with regard to keeping elements aligned, although the use of CSS positioning is now preferred, due to changes in standards.
(f) Inconsistent sizing of similar elements. For example, having buttons on a sidebar be differently sized when they are meant to all look like each other can be very off-putting to the viewer. The same principle applies to text which accidentally varies slightly in font size when it is meant to stay the same size.

Once again, feel free to ask if you have any questions.

My Web sites, plus a note on using Purdue webspace

It was requested that I post the link to my site, which I showed in class today, to the blog. Here is the link.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~dherring/cgt141/project2

Also, while I'm at it, here are links to my older sites:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~dherring/cgt141/project1
http://bob.ivytech.edu/~dherring6



I was going to post a highly detailed explanation of how to use your Purdue webspace for a site, but after the previous, very long explanation of hex color codes, that may be pushing things a bit. It's not too complicated, anyway, as long as you know where your Purdue "H drive" is. (The H drive is your Purdue network drive space, easily accessible from ITaP lab computers through the "My Computer" section of Windows Explorer; you'll find it at or near the bottom, with your career account username mentioned in the name, I think.) Once you enter your H drive, find the "www" folder, which should be clearly visible. Place any files for your site - HTML, CSS, etc. - somewhere within this folder (you can make subfolders inside the "www" folder if you want), and you will be able to instantly view the files in a browser by putting the appropriate URL into the address box. Here is how to start typing the URL:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~username/

You must, of course, replace "username" with your own career account name, but you should keep the ~. After the last slash, you must add more, but that depends on where your file is inside the "www" folder. For example, if you have a file directly inside the "www" folder called "page.html", just add "page.html" after the last slash. However, if you put a subfolder called "com315" inside of the "www" folder and then put a file called "page.html" inside of the "com315" subfolder, you'll have to add "com315/page.html" after the slash, so that the total URL is as follows: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~username/com315/page.html

If this is unclear or if you need more info, ask me in the comments.

Explanation of Hex Codes

I mentioned in class today that I might post an explanation of hexadecimal (a.k.a. hex) codes for colors used in Web design.

Hex codes are all combinations of 6 characters (preceded by a # sign in HTML). The characters can either be digits (0-9) or letters from A through F. The letters count as digits also, since hex numbers are not 10-based (like decimal numbers are) but 16-based. A represents 10, B represents 11, and so on until F, which represents 15. So basically in hex codes there are 16 individual digits, representing the numbers 0-15.


If you use combinations of two hex digits, you can create numbers ranging from 0 through 255 (in hex, from 00 through FF). Just use the first one as a "sixteens' digit" (analogous to a "tens' digit" in decimal number operations) and the second one as a "ones' digit". Therefore, to convert two-digit hex numbers to decimal numbers, you multiply the first digit by sixteen, and then add the second digit to the result. This process can also be reversed if you want to convert decimal numbers between 0 and 255 to two-digit hex numbers: you divide the decimal number by 16 and use the quotient as the first digit, and then use the remainder as the second digit.

For example, in the hex number "C5", the first digit, C (which in decimal number terms is twelve), indicates that there are twelve sixteens in the number, and the second digit indicates that there are five ones. Thus, C5 is equal to (12 * 16) + 5, or 197. Similarly, the number "1E" is equal to (1 * 16) + 14, or 30. (Recall that the digit E is equal to fourteen.)

To convert the decimal number 241 to hex form, divide it by sixteen. You will get 15 with a remainder of 1. In hex numbers, 15 has a digit form, which is F. Therefore, when you use the "reverse" process mentioned two paragraphs above (at the end), you find that the hex form of 241 is "F1". (IMPORTANT: Only use this method for numbers between 0 and 255.)


Why did I explain a process that specifically concerns the numbers 0-255 (or 00 - FF in hex)? It was because those numbers directly have to do with the use of hex codes for colors. As I mentioned, hex codes for colors are all 6 characters (i.e., digits) long, not counting the #. These 6 digits are actually 3 two-digit hex numbers put side-by-side. Each two-digit hex number represents the value for each of 3 basic colors - red, green, and blue, in that order - composing the color in question. Every color on a Web page is a certain combination of these three colors, even if there is a value of 0 (none) for one or more of them. For example, pure, bright green has a value of 0 for both red and blue, but a maximum value for green. Pure, bright yellow has maximum values of red and green, but a value of 0 for blue. Black has a value of 0 for all three colors. White has a maximum value for all three. Most colors have some combination of all three, and the color values tend to be lower for darker colors and higher for lighter ones.

In hex color codes, the lowest possible value (none) for a color is 00 (0 in decimal), and the highest or maximum is FF (255 in decimal). Hopefully now you see how all this comes together. 6-digit hex codes are broken down as follows: the first two digits represent the amount in hex form, between 0 and 255 inclusive, of RED in the color; the next two, similarly, represent the amount of GREEN in the color; and the last two represent the amount of BLUE in the color. The range of colors possible using hex codes is known as the range of RGB colors (RGB stands for red, green, blue).


Someone in class today was wondering why the hex numbers for different shades of the same color all looked completely different. The following is an explanation of why that is.

In order for the same basic color (apart from the lightness/darkness) to be preserved, the relative proportions of the component colors (R, G, B) must stay the same. In order for that color to get darker, however, the component colors must go down together (with the proportions constant), and in order for it to get lighter, they must go up together (again with the proportions constant). Think of it varying like this: 4|16|28 --> 2|8|14 --> 1|4|7. Same proportions, different amounts. Since this sort of change generally involves each of the three numbers changing simultaneously every time any change is made to lightness/darkness, the 2-digit values generally all vary together when you even move to a slightly lighter/darker version of the color.


If any clarifications are needed, please ask me.


Here is an easy hex/decimal number converter: http://www.statman.info/conversions/hexadecimal.html

Discussion for Week 7

A couple of things to think about...any final thoughts on the last informative presentation? Feel free to share here. I'd also be interested in hearing your first impressions of the web site design assignment. Draw upon your knowledge, experienced or not. We had a lot of good comments and suggestions for additional resources today-- you might want to post those and share any tips or even questions you have yourself.

For those of you going through the job application process, take this into consideration. Most people feel they have strong interviewing skills, and because of this, don't really bother to brush up on things or read about tips and suggestions for the interview process. Try looking on websites or google searching interview tips and tricks. This might give you ideas you otherwise might not have considered.

Discussion for Week 6

As we spend these past several days on this assignment, let's think critically about these second presentations. Which speeches do you tend to remember? Why? What aspect of them stands out most? What makes these presentations credible? On that note, what challenges have you encountered, if any? Have the presentations begun to ease up for you, remain the same, or increase in difficulty...note that there is no right answer; in fact, different opinions can make this an interesting discussion.

Air Race

So as most of you know or remember i gave my first speech on the Air Race this summer. I just wanted to post the link to the website incase any of you wanted to follow a long or read more about the race.

www.airraceclassic.org

Hey guys, here is the link to the website I made for my presentation yesterday. Its pretty easy to use and create. Just go to www.doodlekit.com and sign up to create a website. All the templates are there. All you have to do is add your content. www.garmin.doodlekit.com

Discussion for Week 5

As you develop your next presentations, what challenges/successes are you finding with your topics and integrating a technology? Is it a challenge to use a tool other than PowerPoint for this presentation, or is there liberation in using something (potentially) new? Are you trying to make connections between these presentations-- or do you have a different approach?

Other ideas, issues, etc. are welcome for discussion.

Discussion for Week 4

How is your experience working in a small group progressing? What challenges are you facing-- or successes? How have you had to develop a strategy for accomplishing your task (the service learning grant), given the short timeframe in which you have to work together?

We watched an episode of "The Office" this week as an example of some of the common issues that occur with public speaking, both in giving advice and in actual presentation. What sorts of observations did you note? Furthermore, how did this episode show why we need to be effective communicators? How will communication skills aid you in the future? How are presentational speaking skills useful in any profession?

Further issues that you have noticed, either in the readings or in some of our experiences this week, are quite welcome.

LinkedIn

Chris' post below inspired me to ask if you are all familiar with LinkedIn. If you aren't a member, you should consider joining. This is a great resource for developing a professional network and sharing your skillsets, expertise and experience.

You never know what possibilities could emerge from joining this site; although with anything, it all stems from how much you are willing to put into it. Some of the projects you've worked from your time at Purdue can be shared here and are great conversation starters. Another tip I have is that if you do join, make a detailed profile. Your experience in your work and education tells us a story about you and primes potential connections about you. I see many Purdue students on this site with minimally developed profiles, which tells us very little about why we should connect with them. I know you all have some very interesting skills, projects and interests going on-- don't discount those experiences.

post-graduation job search

For those of you who are seniors, you might realize that the time to find work after school is rapidly approaching. Some of you, the lucky few, you already have something lined up. The rest of us, myself included, do not however. Some people have come to me asking where they should go to find jobs outside of the classroom and up until recently I didn't really have anything for them. So I looked into it, and found that a few websites help with such issues. CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com are great sources to get your resume to the masses. Next time you find yourself in a pinch and need a job, be sure to look at these sites for some suggestions to get you started.

Social Connections

Interesting article about social networks and number of friends...

Dwight's Speech

What was the significance of the Office episode we watched today? What advice dead you pay attention to in the episode, both good and bad? What should we take away from this episode, as speakers-- and educators?

Discussion for Week 3

What features in presentations stood out to you the most? What aspects of presentations did you tend to notice on the whole? What role does delivery play in a presentation? What would you change about your delivery in the next presentation?

LogMeIn

Hey guys if you remember my speech from Wednesday I was talking about LogMeIn the awesome free remote access program/website. The website is www.logmein.com. When you get there click the try it free button. That will get you a free 30day trial of the Pro version, but don't worry you will not get charged for anything it will automatically switches to the free after the 30days are up. If you like the pro version its $70 a year for one computer and I have seen $20 off coupons on the internet if you really want the pro. Pro has this really awesome sound feature that you can listen to your music playing on the computer at home through the computer your using at school. But free does so much on its own that it is not worth the pro, in my opinion.
Check it out really recommend it to anyone. You can also install it on your parents computers so you can help them with computer problems like editing photos or burning a CD.

Discussion for Week 2

As you prepare your outlines for your first presentations, what challenges are you encountering, given the limited amount of time to present? For those who have presented, did you find the time frame a difficult one? What sorts of decisions did you have to make to still include the important parts of your projects?

In what situations are using computer-mediated content helpful? When might using technology not be useful? Would this depend on the subject that you speak on?

"Zen Coding" Tool

This could be interesting. Anyone give this a try?

Useful Photoshop Tips

Mastering Photoshop: Unknown Tricks and Time Savers

Online neighborhoods

I remember when GeoCities was one popular option for web hosting purposes. In retrospect, what made this web site unique was its organization of web sites into neighborhoods, which I think simulates the idea of 'living' in a community. On a more technical side, GeoCities was unique because instead of using an FTP client to access your web site, you edited pages via browser. At least, this is my memory of working with the interface- this may predate my knowledge of using FTP or a terminal to update a web site.

Wikipedia has a nice history of GeoCities. However, upon searching for GeoCities itself, this is the sad result.

Discussion for Week I

This week, we took some time to overview the course. Let's take some time to think about the first presentation you're going to give. You don't need to respond to all the questions- feel free to just take one and run with it, or perhaps another subject that may interest you. The questions are a starting ground to get us thinking. What types of topics interest you? What kind of choices will you make for your topic/possible topics, given the timeframe?

A couple of other thoughts... how do you best construct your thoughts when organizing information for a project/presentation? What techniques do you use when/if you construct an outline for a project?

Let's begin by discussing within the comments, although individual posts are also welcome.

Welcome, COM315ers!

Welcome to the COM315 course blog.

I will be posting weekly discussion questions, as well as any interesting content that you may want to read. Feel free to post, network with each other, and discuss.

Hope everyone has a great spring semester!